The RSI Founders’ Story 

In 2011, a small group of renowned corporate and entrepreneurial leaders founded Rethink Sustainability Initiatives (RSI). Collectively, they provided deep expertise and industry experience in finance, economics, marketing, communications, energy and the built environment, and technology innovation.  

This founders’ story examines RSI’s origins, provides contextual highlights of its evolving journey, and summarizes key future-readiness challenges and transformational opportunities for decision-making leaders and experts in Canada and abroad. 

RSI: The Beginning

Prior to co-founding RSI, Yasmin Glanville, CEO of CTR Inc., was working on a long-term global consulting assignment for a large industrial corporation. The mandate was to cultivate a culture of innovation, powered by energy, stakeholder engagement, and retention in the communities where they operated. It also involved integrating relevant environmental and social responsibility commitment into the overall strategy and solution deliverables in Canada and Europe. 

The results exceeded the project’s expectations. It also demonstrated it was possible to unite different government, not-for-profit, and corporate stakeholders in collaboratively addressing environmental sustainability challenges.

This integrated approach inspired the creation of RSI. To speed up its design and development, Yasmin invited a cross-sector group of leaders and experts to an Accelerated  Design Charrette in March 2011, hosted at XDesign Studios in Toronto. Five senior leaders stepped up, joining Yasmin as co-founders and Board Directors: Dr. William (Bill) Ratcliffe, Peter Love, Dr. Jamie Gray-Donald, Jim Johnston (Environmental Sustainability & Compliance), and Edwin Lim. 

RSI launched in an emergent year for environmental sustainability, marked by grassroots activism, policy debates, and growing urgency around climate change. However, sustainability resided mostly in the margins as something “nice to do” and a reputation boost; it had not entered the mainstream. RSI’s founders wanted to change that narrative.

Mission, Goal, and Positioning

RSI’s initial mission was to engage a cross-sector of decision-makers in cultivating a broader understanding of key solvable sustainability challenges facing business, the environment, and society, as well as showcase proven scalable solutions. It aimed to accelerate the integration of sustainable innovation into business as a competitive advantage in a fast-changing market.

From the outset, RSI was well-positioned to engage leaders and stakeholders across multiple sectors. Its leadership exchange enabled C-suite executives and officials to share, collaborate on, and advance environmentally responsible strategies within their organizations, industries, and communities.

Sustainability in Action

Over its 14-year journey, RSI has consistently met its goal of accelerating sustainability in action. It has harnessed the power of strategic foresight and market intelligence to understand key global and local issues and disruptive trends affecting business, society, and the planet. 

RSI uses innovative and collaborative approaches to identify and activate potential solutions. Tools and techniques include:

  • Accelerated solution design charettes
  • Future modelling
  • Scenario planning
  • Multi-disciplined research studies and publications
  • InterGen workshops
  • Industry advisory services
  • Leadership exchanges
  • Action summits
  • AI-enhanced data science

RSI Highlights: Recent Years and Now

RSI has expanded into a global network and outreach of approximately 500,000 decision-makers and influencers across Canada, the U.S., the UK, Denmark, France, Central America, and Africa. Expansion arose through innovative sustainability summits, roundtables, keynote talks at corporate and industry conferences, thought leadership research, white papers and reports. They include AI Sustainable Futures, Futures Action Summits on the future of buildings, energy, climate, work, and education, Big Shifts Knowledge Exchanges, and Urban Community Climate Action. These events and the knowledge shared have also been turned into practical playbooks (such as the Reimagined Future of Food – Insights for Action; and, SJT Journey Community Climate Action)

Continuing to Evolve to Meet Changing Needs

The need for RSI has never been greater, and the founding principles and intent remain true.

With the world undergoing constant change, which is accelerating due to rapidly evolving technology, RSI is also evolving in order to continue delivering leading best practices. Today, it is a membership-based, not-for-profit enterprise that engages through research and thought leadership into implementation and demonstration. The process remains a knowledge exchange,  with more active involvement in the “So what?” and next stages of sustainability transformation. To reflect the changing foci, RSI manages the process via two key communities of interest: Built Environment and Social Fabric. Each encompasses research projects, publications, partnered projects, and discussion forums to provide holistic and inclusive engagement by all stakeholders. 

Partnership is a defining characteristic of RSI’s success. RSI recently became the North American partner of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), providing an anchor venue in Toronto for their 2025 Fellows Festival.

Future Readiness Factors: Leveraging Sustainability Achievements

The mainstreaming of sustainability has evolved the conversation. Today, both business and society face converging disruptions. 

As RSI moves forward, sustainable leadership will need to factor in: 

  • Tariffs and global economic uncertainty
  • Shifting of supply chain control to BRIC nations, especially China
  • Stubborn to abate sectors, such as aviation and petrochemicals 
  • AI and technology concentration
  • A North American focus on fossil fuels and a fractured policy landscape
  • Removing much of public voluntary sustainability reporting for fear of regulatory crackdown on greenwashing, as well as uncertainty about what it entails
  • The high demand to decarbonize the entire economy—built, transportation, and industrial—to combat climate change
  • An urgent need to address the widening affordable food and housing gap facing the growing number of impoverished people; Food Banks Canada estimates that 25% of Canadians may be living in poverty

RSI helps leaders navigate these global realities and focus on both the horizon and the “green shoots.” Most notably, they include:  

  • The very rapid, and uneven, energy transition to renewables and smart grids 
  • Major sustainability policy moves in Europe and China, as well as pockets of North America
  • Net-zero commitments and regulations involving more than half the global economy

How RSI Founders and Current Leadership Are Engaged

RSI’s founders, leaders, partners, members, and alliances have a proven formula and track record of success. They are sought after speakers and advisors on answering “What’s next?” and “How?”

RSI Founders

RSI Board of Directors and Advisors 

The RSI Board consists of highly successful and dedicated leaders, entrepreneurs, and experts who actively embed sustainability and innovation to advance the ability of business and society to thrive in the new realities of our fast changing world.

To learn more, contact us directly or write to RSI at Communications@rethinksustainability.ca.